There’s a code within the Payton family to keep track of all the Garys.
These days, Warriors fans are rooting for Lil Gary. Not be confused with his brother, Big Gary, or his Hall of Fame father, Uncle Gary. At least that’s how Zerrion Payton addresses them.
“Once you get around the family and everything, it’s understandable,” Zerrion said with a laugh.
The 26-year-old Zerrion is now a rising star in the high school basketball ranks as the head coach for AZ Compass Prep, which finished the 2021-22 season ranked as the No. 10 school in the country by ESPN. He recently became head coach for the under-15 Jalen Green Elite squad on the Adidas circuit. But he’s also Lil Gary’s longtime 1-on-1 sparring partner and probably knows his game better than anyone on the planet.
On Wednesday night, Lil Gary dropped 15 points to help the Warriors beat the Nuggets 102-98 in Game 5 of the Western Conference first round and clinch a series victory. Save for a 1.7-second tactical substitution, Lil Gary played the final 15 minutes of the victory. Warriors coach Steve Kerr simply couldn’t keep him off the floor.
“He’s found a home here,” Kerr said.
If you needed any further proof, Gary Payton II has arrived. LeBron James even tweeted him a shoutout after his performance Wednesday.
Not bad for the guy who secured the Warriors’ 15th and final roster spot on opening night.
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The Paytons are Bay Area basketball royalty at this point. It all traces back to Pop-Pop Payton.
Hearing the tales, you don’t have to wonder where The Glove got his edge. In his hey-day, Al Payton was known around The Town as ‘Mr. Mean’, a no-nonsense OG from the South who often had a scowl on his face. It was tough love, though.
His son, Gary, became a star on streets of Oakland and at Skyline High School, when he grew into his 6-foot-4 frame before being recruited by Oregon State. There, at Skyline, Gary once got spanked by his dad in front of classmates following a couple of one-day suspensions.
“Gary wanted to go to class and be a comedian,'' Al Payton told the Seattle Times in 1990. “Because he was a basketball player, he didn't think he had to do anything else. I went in there and told his classmates, `I'm going to show you all that he's not a little man, he's a little baby.' And I kind of spanked him in front of everyone. That was that. Even in college, all anyone had to do was say, `I'm going to call your father,' and Gary would straighten right up.''
Gary Payton became known as one of the fiercest competitors, best trash talkers, dominating defenders and electrifying point guards the game has ever seen. Aside from his son, Mr. Mean helped foster a golden age of Oakland hoops, as other local stars like Brian Shaw, Jason Kidd, Antonio Davis and Greg Foster eventually made it to the NBA out of that 1980s era.
The Paytons’ “We Are Family” teams were stuff of legend for decades in the long-standing Oakland Neighborhood Basketball League. Pop-Pop also spent countless hours helping kids at the East Oakland Youth Development Center, Bushrod Park in North Oakland and the San Leandro Boys & Girls Club. Al Payton passed away in September 2015 at the age of 80.
“I miss him,” Zerrion said. “He’s definitely a legend. He started the whole foundation for us and installed that whole mentality into us.”
Naturally, hoops were just around for the Paytons, ever since Pop-Pop introduced the game to his son at the age of 7. Gary went on to father two sons named Gary – a few months apart with different women – hence the need for the Big Gary and Lil Gary nicknames. GP2 had other interests like soccer and swimming and initially hesitated to lean into basketball. Especially with the incessant comparisons to his Hall-of-Fame father, ones that still follow him today.
It’s almost like basketball chose GP2. It’s in his blood. And it all goes back to Pop-Pop.
“He was the backbone,” Zerrion said. “He set the standard. When he walked in the gym, everybody know – that’s Mr. Mean; that’s Pop-Pop Payton. You know what I’m saying? He set that standard. It’s not that we even have to uphold it. It was ingrained into us. It was just our family. That’s how we are. Rugged. We cut from a different cloth and we make the best out of any situation. That’s how Gary thrives where he is now or JUCO, high school, wherever he was.”
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Everyone loves the last day of school.
That momentous day to start off every kid’s summer also meant something special to Zerrion. It meant he was headed off to Uncle Gary’s mansion in Las Vegas to hoop with Lil Gary and Gary’s younger brother Julian, and whoever else happened to be in the area at the time. Zerrion would be there all summer until school started up again.
The annual tradition began when Zerrion was in middle school and GP2 was in high school, about 12 years ago. It’s still going.
“We got battles in that backyard,” Zerrion said. “We were just out back last summer going at it.”
We’ve seen Payton II’s infectious energy on the court in an NBA game. He can light up Chase Center in a heartbeat with a steal and a slam. So, what’s it like playing GP2 in 1-on-1 in the backyard?
“He foul you, but he don’t foul you,” Zerrion said. “Good luck getting a call against him in 1-on-1. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
On the rarest occasions, Uncle Gary even got out there for some run. His game changed from his NBA glory days as The Glove, though.
“He’s got that old-school game,” Zerrion said. “He’s got that belly now, so he’s just backing guys down. He on that game now. But if you ask him right now, he’ll still to this day tell you that we can’t beat him.”
Uncle Gary hasn’t played in the backyard since 2018, so he might be retired for real, for real.
YouTube doesn’t lie, though. Nor does Uncle Gary’s Hall of Fame resume, which includes a spot on NBA’s 75th Anniversary team, nine All-Star bids, a Defensive Player of the Year Award and a championship ring.
“If you say anything to him, he’s just gonna tell you just to look him up,” Zerrion said, “Or he’s gonna bring the trophies out on you and say, ‘I have no reason to play you.’”
Zerrion is in no rush to hoop in the backyard with GP2 and Unc any time soon. He’d much rather watch the Warriors make a deep Finals run into June.
The mercury hits triple digits in the dry Nevada desert, but that doesn’t stop Zerrion and Payton II. Every day during the summer they pretty much follow the same routine.
Wake up. Eat. Lift. Hoop. Nap. Hoop til the sun goes down. Repeat. On nights when they still have an appetite for more, the Paytons will meet others for midnight games at a local church gym.
“Same regimen. Same people,” Zerrion said. “His journey’s been so crazy. I’ve been watching him go from 0 to 100. G – he’s really the most humble person.”
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Zerrion split time between Stockon and Oakland growing up, eventually starring at Modesto Christian before plotting his next move. A 6-foot guard with lockdown defensive capabilities (sound familiar?), Zerrion averaged 4.5 steals per game as a high school senior in 2012-13 while Gary was tearing it up for Salt Lake Community College.
Zerrion thought, ‘What if?’ and made it a reality, teaming up with his cousin for one special season in 2013-14.
Imagine the poor souls who had to line up in opposing backcourts while the Paytons hounded ‘em.
“It was like a movie,” Zerrion said.
Zerrion’s favorite game came at Phoenix College in front of dozens of family and friends, as they connected on a couple of alley oops, including one early in the first half to set the tone. The duo broke out on a 2-on-1 fast break, before executing a quick hot potato that ended in a Zerrion lob for Gary, who threw it down hard.
Payton to Payton in the box score.
“Gary cleared the stands out,” Zerrion said. “He made everybody run out the gym.”
Zerrion and Gary will always be 1-on-1 adversaries, but for that cosmic campaign, they showed the chemistry built during those endless summer days in Sin City.
“To score on one of us in the backyard – if I had to score on Gary or he had to score on me – you knew it was gonna come with some blood or something,” Zerrion said. “So when we get to the real court, it’s easy, you know what I’m saying? We just lock up. It’s something I can’t really explain. We just had it.”
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Division I coaches and recruiters often filled the practice gym for SLCC that season, before Payton II decided to go to his father’s alma mater and attend Oregon State. GP2 made an immediate impact for new coach Wayne Tinkle, named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Pac-12 for both of his two seasons in Corvallis. They remain the only two players in school history to record a triple-double.
Concerns persisted about GP2’s offense and ability to contribute at the NBA level, given he was listed at 6-foot-3. Payton II went undrafted in 2016, embarking on his NBA odyssey. Hope you’re sitting, because this is gonna take a minute to unfurl.
It started with a 2016 summer league invite from the Houston Rockets, before he latched on with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Developmental League (now called the G League). At the tail end of that season, the Milwaukee Bucks signed him and he made his NBA debut on April 2, 2017 against the Dallas Mavericks, scoring five points in nine minutes.
Payton split the 2017-18 season as a two-way player between the Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. In the regular season finale, he dropped 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and two steals for the Lakers against the Clippers.
In the fall of 2018, Payton was waived from the training camp by the Portland Trail Blazers before going back to Rio Grande Valley. In January 2019, he latched on with the Washington Wizards for a 10-day contract before returning to Rio Grande Valley for a third stint with the Vipers.
In 2019, Payton played for the South Bay Lakers of the G League, then Wizards again, where finally got some extended playing time in 2020. But it wasn’t enough to get an NBA deal the next season, as he spent 2021 in the G League bubble, earning DPOY honors for the 905 Raptors.
At long last, the Warriors signed him on April 8, 2021 to a 10-day contract. Then another. Then they brought him on for the rest of the season. Aside from a brief period when he was on waivers – and available for the other 29 NBA teams right before the season started – Payton has been a part of Golden State.
“He’s so resilient. He’s very positive,” Zerrion said. “He’s a very solution-oriented person. He’s just worried about the next thing, like how can I make it better? How can I improve? He doesn’t dwell on the situation he’s put in.”
There’s a pattern, here, if you haven’t noticed.
Payton continually proves himself after working his way “out the mud,” as he likes to say. He went from junior college to a sleepy Pac-12 basketball school with a new coach. Then he yo-yo’d between the G League and the NBA for five years. Now he’s a playoff rotation player for a legit title contender.
“For me, I’ve been seeing it forever,” Zerrion said. “I’m just happy that the world gets to see this and how good of a person he is and he likes to help people and stuff like that beyond basketball. It’s awesome seeing him come out there and kill it. And be comfortable somewhere where he’s appreciated and he can excel, do what he’s good at and not have to do anything else. That’s why I love him being with the Warriors and Curry and everything, because they just let him be him. They’re really a family. Big blessing, man, seeing him go crazy.”
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It’s been a big season for Lil Gary.
The Warriors announced Payton’s non-guaranteed contract just hours before tipping off the 2021-22 season against the Lakers. By the seventh contest of the year, GP2 had earned a rotation role from Kerr. He electrified the crowd throughout November and has become a key part to the team’s identity on both sides. The defense and the effort and the energy is a given.
Payton II said teams used to try to mold his game and fit him into an NBA archetype. The Warriors let him do him. He can chill in the corner, knock down a couple of those, cut to the rim at opportune times, lurk in the dunker spot and wait for easy slams, set screens and shoulder big men, make the high IQ pass or play when you need it. Things come easy to GP2 when things are going right.
On Wednesday, he finished with two steals and a block while going 6-of-8 from the field and 3-of-4 from 3-point land. He buried a contested 3-pointer with 1:05 left to put the Dubs up by five.
“I’m still trying to get over the fact that GP hit that big shot, man,” Boogie Cousins said after getting bounced.
Dad wanted more, though. Payton II said he got criticized by his pops for being too selective shooting during his 26 minutes of play.
“Gary has been mad at me since high school for passing up shots,” Payton II said. “He’ll be all right.”
Steph, Draymond and Klay know playoff performers – as their three rings and five NBA Finals trips will attest. All three players have been singing GP2’s praises after Game 5.
“Look at his impact this series,” Steph said.
“He was absolutely incredible,” Draymond said.
“He showed everything in his bag tonight,” Klay said.
Speaking of the “bag,” the 29-year-old Payton could be putting himself in position for the first multi-year deal of his career. His $1.94 million contract became guaranteed on Jan. 10 but he’ll be a free agent this summer. Luxury tax could complicate things, but you know the Warriors and Payton II would love to work out a deal to keep him in The Bay, where he and Zerrion went to games at Oracle Arena over the years.
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Much like his legendary father, Gary Payton has taken on an ambassador role of sorts in recent years, trying to grow the Big 3 league – and more recently – the basketball program at Lincoln University in downtown Oakland.
Lincoln University is a small, private, non-profit, 500-student university which tapped him to help lead its efforts to develop an athletics department. He’s a mentor, far removed from his days of guarding Michael Jordan, John Stockton and Kobe Bryant.
Now GP2 is locking up the best players in the league. In a recent Instagram post, he spotlighted all the superstars he’s defended this season, like Ja Morant, LaMelo Ball, Trae Young, James Harden, LeBron, Kyrie Irving, Jalen Green, Dame Lillard and Luka Doncic.
For Zerrion, to see GP2 carrying the Payton torch is surreal.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” Zerrion said. “Every day I can look at my Instagram and just see my cousin go crazy and he’s everywhere. It’s all for the right reasons. It feels so good. Honestly, it’s a feeling that I can’t even explain. It’s crazy.”
Whenever the Warriors’ playoff run is over - ideally after another title - GP2 will be headed back to Vegas for some more 1-on-1 with Zerrion. More lifting. More hoops. More midnight run. Another summer at Payton Paradise.
Everything’s changed, but nothing has for Lil Gary.
